The industry body represents 1.50 lakh mobile retailers who may be unable to pay their monthly instalments and interest towards credit cards, vehicle loan, home loan and business loans taken by them. A similar letter highlighting the concerns of the mobile retailers was also sent to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).

MUMBAI: Offline retailers have urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to allow delays in the monthly instalment payments for loans with the trade in dire straits because of the lock down amidst Covid -19 pandemic.

"It would be of great help to at least delay payments for at least three months without any penalties, interest or lower grade in CIBIL Score," said Arvinder Khurana, national president of All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), wrote in a recent letter.

The industry body represents 1.50 lakh mobile retailers who may be unable to pay their monthly instalments and interest towards credit cards, vehicle loan, home loan and business loans taken by them.

"It would be a compassionate move to relax the timeline a little so that we get some relief to pay these EMIs. Failing this, any non-payer will fall in the defaulter category and the CIBIL scores will come down," stated the letter.

A similar letter highlighting the concerns of the mobile retailers was also sent to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). "Our major finance scheme customers are from the working background who are very dependent on the cash flow and all their expenses come to a halt if this cash flow stops," said the second letter.

It pointed out that there were many customers who are dependent on retailers to make their EMI payments which will not be possible in the current scenario and may lead to defaulters in major cases.

"We hope that the delay in payments by consumers in the coming months, will not impact any credit rating of the respective retailers or the approval rates of stores during this crisis of unavoidable circumstances," said AIMRA in its letter to NBFCs.

The FM has so far not announced any relief measure for the mobile retailers.